Follow The Follower

Conference attendees were far kinder to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, represented at CPAC by the pro-life group Team Sarah (founded by the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List after Palin was nominated as McCain’s running mate) and Draft Sarah Palin 2012. “I think that if she had been the candidate, if John McCain had stepped aside, she would have clearly won the election,” said Paul Streitz, the national chairman of the Palin draft group. “She did not have the weaknesses on the immigration issue and the free trade issue that McCain did. She was stronger against the bailout than McCain was. She’s shown leadership. People are willing to follow her. People believe what she says. [bold mine-DL]”

No wonder so many conservatives like Palin. It makes no difference what positions she actually took during the election, and it makes no difference what is in her record, and they “believe what she says” by pretending that she has said things that she never said. As we know from her statements during the campaign, she has exactly the same weaknesses on immigration McCain did, she has to my knowledge never made a public statement about free trade agreements one way or the other, and just like McCain she was entirely on board with the bailout. There is no way of knowing whether she would have taken different positions had she not been McCain’s running mate, but there is also no reason to think that she would have. She has never taken a distinctive or noteworthy position on any national issue, nor has she accomplished much of anything on any comparable state issue. That is the opposite of leadership. But apparently some people will still follow her.